Getac 9213 - Rugged PC Review

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review.com
A COMPACT, LIGHT, FULL-FUNCTION BUSINESS-
RUGGED NOTEBOOK BUILT FOR THE ROAD
The 9213 is a new “business-rugged” notebook computer
from Getac. The company, founded in 1989 as a joint
venture between Taiwan’s MiTAC Technology
Corporation and GE Aerospace, realized that an increasing
number of corporate customers seek something more
durable than garden-variety consumer notebooks without
wanting the extra weight and cost of a fully rugged
machine. This is exactly where the 9213 comes in. It
offers everything one would expect from a modern
“ultra-light,” the category of notebooks that has a bigger
screen, much more power, and many more features than
a netbook, yet weighs hardly a pound more than one of
those seductively low-priced little pretenders.
Introduced to the US market in July of 2009, the Getac
9213 is a compact, elegant notebook computer with a
wide-format 13.3-inch display, a frugal but powerful
Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 processor, an integrated DVD
Super Multi drive and excellent connectivity, all in a
package that is thinner and much lighter than the sleek
13-inch Apple MacBook. It’s also just a quarter inch
thicker and a few ounces heavier than the vaunted Apple
MacBook Air, which has neither an internal optical drive
nor the Getac’s connectivity or inherent ruggedness.
The Getac 9213 was conceived as a business notebook
that will not only survive the usual trials and tribula-
SPECIAL REVIEW
GETAC 9213
reprinted from RUGGED PC REVIEW • www.RuggedPCReview.com
by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer
tions that come with using a computer on the road and while
traveling, but also perform flawlessly under all the conditions
one might encounter when using a computer away from the
desk. It is a machine for those who need full mobile computing
power in a durable, handy package that does not compromise
with a tiny screen with insufficient resolution, minuscule RAM,
or lack of an optical drive. Based on our brief testing of a preproduction
unit, the Getac 9213 meets all those requirements
and then some. We consider it a potential home run.
Getac 9213: What You Get
What you get is an elegant 12.5 x 9 inch notebook computer
that’s made by one of the world’s premier vendors of rugged
and durable computers, and one that is just an inch thick and
weighs only 3.65 pounds—roughly half of your average notebook.
You get a display that is large enough and has high
enough resolution, a full-size keyboard so that your hands and
fingers do not have to adjust to a slightly downsized version,
brisk performance, and exceptional battery life.
Like today’s cameras that usually have stickers on them with
their primary selling points, the Getac 9213 comes with a label
that lists its virtues. They are:
n The light weight (the label claims 3.1 pounds, but ours
came in at 3.65—still very good).
n Resistance to liquids—rather than issuing an IP rating for
the machine, you can spill 100cc of liquid onto the keyboard or
keypad (about 3.5 ounces) and the machine will be fine.
n 45cm drop protection—that’s actually only a foot and a
half, somewhat curious as the 9212 with a 12.1-inch display is
rated a more reassuring 2.5 feet.
n 120 kgf press resistance. Kilogram-force is not very well
defined, but the idea is that the 9213 is quite crush-resistant.

REVIEW: GETAC 9213
n 8 hrs. Battery Life—we’ll get to that farther
down in the review.
n Fingerprint sensor—definitely a plus in a
machine geared towards business!
n 60-Day Trial of MS Office—can do without that.
n Getac Utility—This refers to two very useful
utilities, G-Manager and ECO setting. More on
those later.
n Communication—WiFi and Bluetooth.
n Webcam—A 1.3 megapixel cam with a very
good dual digital microphone array.
As you can see in the composite image on the
prior page, the LED backlight allows for a very thin
LCD case. The overall case is quite slender as well,
and slightly wedge-shaped, with four rubber feet.
Most of the connectivity is concentrated on the
left side of the computer where you find two USB
ports, a standard VGA connector, a docking/port
replicator connector, an RJ45 LAN jack, audio
in/out and a special S/PDIF interface for digital
audio. S/PDIF stands for “Sony/Philips Digital
Interconnect Format” and can be used to connect
to things like home theaters that support Dolby
Digital or DTS sound. There’s also a small lever to
turn wireless on and off.
On the right side is the DVD Multi Drive, a third
USB jack, power, and an ExpressCard/34 slot.
On the front is a 4-in-1 card reader that supports
SD cards as well as Sony Memory Stick and Memory
Stick Pro. Facing forward so that you can see them
even when the LCD lid is closed are six control
lights that show the status of wireless, AC/battery,
charge, hard disk activity, caps lock and num lock.
The full-size 87-key keyboard has black keys with
white writing for primary symbols and blue for the
couple dozen function key operations (including a
numeric keypad). The keyboard is well organized
and provides good tactile feedback. Above the
keyboard are three “Quick Buttons.” They light up
when you touch them and then slowly fade away.
One launches Internet Explorer, one is user customizable,
and one let you very quickly set the
desired power savings mode. All indicator lights
and icons are tiny and very faint. They certainly
never get in the way.
The touchpad and mouse buttons have sort of a
black mirror finish that looks very elegant, but can
result in unwanted reflections.
The overall design theme of the Getac 9213 is
matte-black, gloss-black and a bit of powdercoated
silver. It’s a very elegant combination and makes for
an overall very elegant, understated design. The
Getac 9213 also feels remarkably solid and robust
for such a light machine. The only drawback is that
the elegant matte-black brushed top of the computer
is quite smudge- and fingerprint-prone.
Performance and battery life
In terms of performance, notebook computers
generally require a compromise between performance
and battery life. Faster processors need more
power, which means a larger battery, which means
higher weight. If prolonged use away from a power
outlet is anticipated, a manufacturer will use a
frugal processor that still delivers good performance.
That is what Getac did by selecting the Intel
Core 2 Duo SU9400, an ultra-low power dual core
processor using advanced 45 nanometer lithography
and running at 1.4GHz. Thermal design power
(defined as the maximum amount of power a
computer’s cooling system needs to dissipate and
used by Intel as a measure of power efficiency) is
just 10 watts—only a fraction of what more desktop-oriented
mobile processors use.
We benchmarked the Getac 9213’s performance
with Passmark Software’s PerformanceTest 6.1 that
runs about 30 tests covering CPU, 2D graphics, 3D
graphics, memory, and disk and then computes
scores for each category and an overall PassMark
score. For comparison we added the results of
Getac’s own fully rugged B300 notebook as well as
those of the semi-rugged Getac P470. The benchmark
results show how it all fits together.
Despite its frugal nature, the Getac 9213’s
SU9400 processor provides very good performance.
Anyone considering a Getac machine but wondering
if performance might be much less than that of
Getac's rugged notebook lineup will find that the
new machine is remarkable quick, with benchmark
performance within 5% of the B300 and 20% of the
P470 despite its very power-efficient processor and
significantly lower clock speed.
Now how about battery life? In the specifications
on its website, Getac claims up to 12 hours of
battery life for a system that is equipped with the
optional secondary battery. The 9213’s standard
battery is a very compact 11.1 Volt/5,200mAH (57.7
watt-hour) Li-Ion pack that fits flush into the
backside of the computer. That’s a hefty supply of
battery power for such a compact and light notebook
and we eagerly awaited the results of our
PERFORMANCE Getac Getac Getac
9213 B300 P470
Processor Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 Core 2 Duo L7500 Core 2 Duo T7200
Clock speed 1.40 GHz 1.60 GHz 2.00 GHz
Thermal Design Power 10 watts 17 watts 35 watts
CPU Mark 838.4 893.9 1085.2
2D Graphics Mark 176.0 158.5 295.2
Memory Mark 347.9 400.0 492.2
Disk Mark 390.2 343.3 277.8
3D Graphics Mark 102.0 138.3 154.8
Overall PassMark 402.9 420.8 498.0
BatteryMon power drawdown test.
As it turns out, idle drawdown is a very low 7.2
watts, and that is with all the default settings. With
the brightness at its lowest (but still completely
visible) setting and wireless off, we saw as little as
6.1 watts (see screen capture). That is remarkable.
Divide 57.7 watt-hours by 6.1 watts and you get
almost 9.5 hours right there. Real world battery life,
of course, depends on usage and operating conditions.
Running resource-intensive applications such
as video will use more power, but depending on
power settings, the system will also go into stand-by
and thus extend battery life.
As is, the Getac 9213 seems to be an exceptionally
power-efficient system. In fact, of the dozens of
Intel Atom-based systems we’ve benchmarked at
RuggedPCReview.com, only a couple were able to
draw less power at idle than the much more powerful
Getac 9213. Six to eight hours of continuing
operation ought to be possible on the main battery,
and so the 12 hours claimed by Getac with the
secondary battery installed seems achievable.
Getac Utility
Like most mobile hardware these days, the Getac
9213 comes with several optimization utilities. ECO
lets you manage the computer's power settings
(balanced, high performance, power saver). You can
also create profiles with Bluetooth and WiFi separately
on or off.
G-Manager shows system information in summary/graphics
format for system, battery and
various types of monitoring—CPU clock, load,
voltage and temperature; fan speed; hard disk speed
and free space; WLAN activity; as well as free
physical and virtual RAM.
Excellent display
Sunlight-readability is rapidly becoming a major
selling point in the rugged notebook market. That
makes sense as most rugged and semi-rugged
notebooks will likely see outdoor duty, and it is just
as important in business-rugged notebooks as they
may well be used outdoors at times. While most
standard transmissive LCD displays wash out in
daylight, the Getac 9213’s display does not. The first
picture on the next page was taken on a very bright
California summer day at about 10AM. The computer
is sitting in partial shade and the picture is
completely unenhanced.
Though Getac does not specifically mention
optical coating, a degree of coating must be there as
the image remains very visible in direct sunlight.
That, however, is only part of the story. While the
9213 does not have the superbright 1,200 nit backlight
used on the company’s B300 and V100 notebooks,
the LED backlight is considerably brighter
than what we usually see on consumer notebooks.
Backlight brightness is controlled via a function key
combination and goes from quite dim to full bright
in 16 steps.
The next picture shows the 9213 directly facing
the 10AM morning sun. This is the most challenging
test for any LCD as no backlight can compete
with the power of the sun. What matters in this
situation is effective optical coating and polarizers.
As you can see, the 9213 display remains visible and
readable. The screen takes on a somewhat greenish
cast and reflection can become an issue. It is actually
not as much of a problem as you might expect as
the human brain is very good at tuning out reflection
and concentrating on the image itself. The
third picture shows that the Getac actually handles
reflection much better than a standard notebook.
I didn’t expect the 9213’s display to be as good
outdoors as it is. Almost all notebooks today have a
reprinted from RUGGED PC REVIEW • www.RuggedPCReview.com

REVIEW: GETAC 9213
glossy display surface that “pops” when viewed
indoors, but often results in distraction reflections.
The Getac 9213 both remains very readable
outdoors, even in direct sunlight, and it
also handles distracting reflections much better
than most commercial consumer notebooks.
As far as viewing from different angles goes,
the 9213’s display has what appears a perfect
180 degrees viewing angle horizontally. The
vertical viewing angle, however, is significantly
narrower, with the usual chromatic changes as
you look at the screen from varying angles. That
is about par for the course with most of today’s
notebook LCDs.
Security
Like most mobile hardware these days, the
Getac 9213 offers various levels of hardware and
software security to prevent unauthorized
access as well as theft.
Specifications
Getac 9213
Type: Business-rugged notebook computer
Housing: Magnesium alloy chassis
Processor: 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 with 3MB
L2 cache and 800MHz FSB (TDP 10 watts)
Chipset: Intel GS45 + ICH9M-SFF
Video: Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD
OS: Windows XP Pro, Vista Business or Windows 7
Memory: 1 to 3 GB DDR2
Expansion slots: 1 Express Card 34/54mm, 4-in-1 card
reader (MMC, SD, MS, MS-PRO)
Display: 13.3-inch/1280 x 800 pixel sunlight-viewable
TFT with LED backlight
Digitizer/Pens: None
Keyboard: Integrated 87-key, full-scale, water-resistant
Storage: 2.5-inch SATA 160 to 250GB, optional 32 or
64GB SSD
Optical drive: DVD super-multi optical drive in media
bay (or optional 2nd battery)
Size: 12.5 x 9.0 x 1.0 inches
Ruggedness: Operating temperature 32 to 95F,
Vibration & drop resistance, crush-resistant to
120kgf, shock-protected HD, 1.5 feet drop
Weight: 3.625 lbs. with battery as tested
Security: TPM 1.2, fingerprint scanner, Kensington lock
Power: Li-Ion (11.1V, 5,200mAh; 57.7 watt-hours; up to
8 hours), optional 27 watt-hour media bay battery
("up to 12 hours")
Communication: Intel WiFi Link 5100 802.11a/g/n WiFi;
Bluetooth Class II v2.1 + EDR
Interface: 3 USB 2.0, RJ11, gigabit RJ45, dock/port
replicator, audio in/out, S/PDIF, VGA video, 1.3mp
camera, fingerprint scanner
Price: US$1,799 (3GB RAM, 160GB drive, 3 yr warranty)
Contact: Getac • us.getac.com • 1-866-464-3822
reprinted from RUGGED PC REVIEW • www.RuggedPCReview.com

REVIEW: GETAC 9213
The VitaKey one-touch identity protection
software suite from EgisTec handles Fingerprint
scanning. VitaKey works in conjunction with the
9213’s fingerprint scanner, supports the Windows
logon, and also multi-user logon scenarios. You can
also create a “password bank” to protect websites
and applications that need user names and passwords.
VitaKey can handle file protection with
encryption and decoding via fingerprint access,
and you can also use the system to launch and
protect applications.
As part of its security, the Getac 9213 uses
Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 hardware to
create and manage computer-generated digital
certificates. Combined with software, these certificates
can be used to:
n Send and received secure email,
n Set up the browser for client identification,
n Sign Word macros,
n Encrypt individual files or entire folders, and
n Create secure network connections.
n To use TPM, you have to enable TPM support
in the BIOS and also install the TPM driver.
All of this can get pretty involved. Some users
may never implement TPM or even passwords,
whereas others may be set up in accordance with
their company's IT security procedures, or they
may configure an individual system for maximum
security. The good news is that all the security
tools are there.
Beyond all the electronic defense and protection
measures, don't forget physical security and get a
Kensington locking cable to use with the Kensington
slot on the left side of the unit. It is inexpensive
insurance against theft.
Ruggedness
Getac considers the 9213 a “business-rugged”
computer capable of absorbing a degree of rough
handling and demanding environmental conditions.
The computer is quite light, but it feels tough
and sturdy. There aren’t any rubber bumpers that
would add extra protection (but also bulk). As is,
the solid construction of the machine, the shock
protection of the hard disk, and the shock-mounting
of other sensitive components combine to let
the machine survive drops from 2-1/2 feet when off
and a foot and a half while operating.
As for environmental specs, the 9213 has an
operating temperature range of 32 to 95 degrees
Fahrenheit. So using it in freezing temperatures or
desert climates is out. The computer can handle
non-condensing humidity from 10 to 90%. The
9213 does not have an IP rating, but the keyboard,
touch pad and buttons are spill-resistant. And
Getac also rates the 9213 as crushproof with a
maximum of 265 pounds onto its surface and 33
pounds onto its thin LCD housing.
Getac also lists compliance with a variety of
governing standards and regulations in various
markets. These can be difficult to summarize in a
review and they also vary depending on markets.
Inquire with Getac.
Summary: Getac 9213
The Getac 9213 is for those who need a full-function notebook
to take with on the road and other places that include traveling and the occasional drop or spill. Further, it’s for those who want for
their computer to be light and handy, but still offer a display large enough to do real work on. The 9213 fills those requirements in
an elegant package that measures 12.5 x 9 inches, is just an inch thick, and weighs only 3.6 pounds.
Unlike netbooks, the Getac 9213 neither compromises performance
nor functionality. Its efficient yet powerful 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
SU9400 processor provides speed and responsiveness very close to that
of Getac’s larger rugged and semi-rugged computers. You also get adequate
onboard ports and connectivity as well as quick SATA disks up to
250GB and a flexible media bay with a DVD Super Multi drive. There is
plenty of onboard security, including a fingerprint scanner. An integrated
1.3 megapixel camera allows video conferencing.
The frugal processor, LED backlight, properly sized battery, and efficient
design of the 9213 make for excellent battery life.
In terms of wireless communications, there’s Bluetooth and
an integrated Intel WiFi Link 5300 module supports 802.11a/g/n.
The 9213 comes with a bright 13.3-inch display that uses the
“wide” 1280 x 800 pixel format with a 16:10 aspect ratio. Thanks to
very effective optical coatings and filters, the screen offers excellent
sunlight viewability with only modest reflections.
Overall, the Getac 9213 is a smartly designed business-rugged
machine that offers full commercial
notebook functionality and long battery
life in an attractive, lightweight package
that is far more durable and
able to handle the occasional
spill and drop. The price of a
fully equipped 9213 is US$1,799, considerably
more than a consumer notebook,
but a downright bargain considering its Getac pedigree,
long 3-year warranty, and sturdy build quality.
Contact: Getac • us.getac.com • 1-866-464-3822
reprinted from RUGGED PC REVIEW • www.RuggedPCReview.com